travel: Bandar Lampung 2012, Part 4 + Final

02/01/2013

We visited my late grandma at her final resting place. After she passed a few years ago, she was cremated and her ashes were stored at a cemetery facility. I think it is pretty compulsory for my part to visit her whenever I go back to my birth town - not just out of obligation - but more out of love and respect I have for her (and all my grandparents in general, both from my mother or my father side). But this grandma is special: she was the one who gave me my real name :)

Afterwards, more food:

Stop no. 1: We bought some grilled chicken and fried chicken from another Padang restaurant: Dua Saudara, then proceeded to Sate Utami for some chicken and mutton satay.

Left: Tongseng. Right: Gulai.

Stop no.2: some street food.

Martabak, Ketoprak, Mie Tek-Tek.

03/01/2013

This was our last day in Lampung, so we did not waste anytime but to hunt for last minute food. After buying some snacks to be brought back to Sydney (packed in two boxes and turned out to be 18 kgs additional baggage. I am very grateful that we flew SQ back to Sydney and they did not charge any extra baggage fee), we marched on...

Stop no.1: Kampoeng Seafood. Was disappointed with the crab we had the other day at Pantai Duta Wisata, so my father ordered two more crabs... . Haha. These ones were much better. And some fried chicken and grilled fish that tasted very very nice. 

Stop no 2: This place served grilled pork. The eatery is owned and operated by Indonesians of ethnic Batak. My older sister and I liked this so much when we were still teenagers, and I have been wanting to eat here again. Alas, the place was closed when we visited it for the past two days. However, on 03/01, it opened! Yayy!

Tasted as good as I remember it.

Then we had to bid goodbye to Lampung as we had a flight to Jakarta at 7 p.m.

As soon as we arrived in Jakarta, 1/2heart wanted to get some fried dumplings (pangsit) from Bakmi Gajah Mada.
Being such suburban we are, of course we didn't know the closest stall for GM, and so we decided to take a taxi to mall Taman Anggrek - the only one we knew. Haha

20 fried dumplings to be shared amongst the three of us (me, 1/2heart, and my younger brother)

We stayed overnight at Jakarta Airport Transit Hotel, before catching our flight to Sydney the next morning - via a stop over at Changi. Jakarta Transit Hotel was nothing fancy and quite expensive (around A$130) for the quality. But it was clean and comfortable enough. 

04/01/2013

After our outbound flight from Jakarta, we had a layover in the afternoon in Singapore, and it was just after lunch time. So what did we do? Visit Lau Pa Sat :D

Carrot Cake & Char Kway Teow & some satays

Then we killed some time around Orchard Rd until we had to return to the airport to catch our night flight to Sydney.

And dang, it's still crazyhot summer here -_-

travel: Bandar Lampung 2012 part 3

31/12/2012

Wow, it's the last day of 2012. We have successfully passed another doomsday prediction.

Food Overeating adventure kept going on... .

Stop no. 1: Begadang II. This place serves 'Padang' style food. I guess for most foreigners, you would find the style similar to Indian food, where they use a lot of herbs, spices, and serve curry style dishes.

Stop no. 2: Idola. Sells Fish Cake - ("Pempek") Indonesian Style - and the cheapest but still nice my parents could find in Lampung (they said). The stand besides this place sold Egg Pancake ("Martabak/Murtabak Telor"). The style here was deep fried, though I have also tried less oily ones at another place. Equally good. We opted for duck eggs for the meat mixture to make it more fragarant and tasty. 

May I just say I won't be booking any appointment to my GP anytime soon. She will have a heart attack looking at my blood pressure/cholesterol chart right after this trip.

"Martabak Telor"

"Pempek"

01/01/2013

Happy New Year, everyone.

Wishing this year will be a good year for all of us with plenty of love, laughter, and happiness all round.

As for me last midnight, greeting 2013 in my parents' house for once in such a long long time brought me a sense of joy, although it was also a bit weird to watch the splendid fireworks display presented by Sydney only through Channel News Asia on television.

Compared to that, Indonesian New Year's Eve... ermmm... the fireworks were sporadic and all over the place (as they were alighted by general public). But I guess, as long as everyone enjoyed and welcomed year 2013 with joy, that's the most important thing.

Stop no. 1: Pantai Duta Wisata. Seafood. Nuff said .

This place would have been a gorgeous place if not loitered with random garbage and general unkempt. Pity.

Don't be fooled by the scenery photos below. I beautified these scenes by 200%

And their chilli was the bomb (below right picture). Definitely got my seal of approval. If you dare, ask for extra spicy (yes, I had it extra spicy. All other chilli sauce consumed prior to today were tomato sauce compared to this gem).

The other seafood we ordered: Grilled "chicken" fish (local calls it "ikan ayam", literally translated to english "chicken fish". As the meat is quite firm and chewy - a bit similar to chicken), Deep fried squid (very very yummy), Black Pepper Crab (more like sweet soy sauce crab. Hardly any black peppers. Disappointing);

Deep fried Tempeh & Tofu (very nice too), and Blood Clams (a bit of an acquired taste. Kinda smell fishy).

Stop no. 2: Rumah Baso - same management under Rumah Kayu.

Ah yes, we were back to this place we went to on the first day I touched down in Lampung a few days ago. But this time, we went to the building located just besides it for some meatballs soup.

It's hard to find good meatballs here without containing any preservatives - usually borax or Formaldehyde/Formalin (*gasp). Dishonest vendors would use preservatives to maintain longer shelf life of their meatballs, but at whose expense? 

Apparently this place claims to not mix any preservatives into their meatballs (well, it did not taste like they have used any, or at least any that I could taste. Borax laden meatballs are quite chewy and hard).